Grandma's Rituals

It's been three weeks since I last wrote a blog and published it here. I know that there are other bloggers out there who, despite their busy life, can still juggle between their day job, responsibilities in the family, blogging, and other crypto-related activities. While I on the other hand, can only update my noise account thrice a day at most and barely check on my read.cash account.

These previous few weeks, you see, have been extremely stressful. I don't think I can multitask and do things both online and offline at the same time. So I made the decision to only do things that I can and to restrict the amount of time I spend on the internet.

My sister requested me to assist her with a school activity the other day. She inquired about rites that I had witnessed firsthand. Then I remembered my maternal grandmother, who holds a different faith than we do. She looked after me as a child, and I come to visit her at times too and whenever I do, I see her doing her rituals.

Superstitious beliefs and rituals have a stronghold on my grandmother. It's already a part of her usual life. When I went to see her a few years back, I had a cough and was feeling bad, and it just so happened that my younger cousin and uncle were also sick at the time. My grandmother became concerned that we were becoming ill and went out to get sticky rice and cooked suman, a Filipino delicacy comprised of sticky rice cooked in sugar and coconut milk. She handed us some munchies after she finished cooking it. Later, Grandma told my younger cousins to leave the house, not to go near the door or windows, and not to make a sound.

Offerings. I've seen my grandmother perform this ritual since I was a child. She prepares food as an offering to her ancestors. She would allow us out of the house so that it would be quiet inside, and then she would 'pray' to her ancestors over and over. She claims that if we approach the foods and make a noise while she is performing her ceremony, the ancestors will go away and not touch the food. And she would not get the help that she is asking from them. As a rowdy and stubborn child, I once sneaked into her house without her knowing to check what was going on. To be honest, I find this ceremony creepy but I can't tell her to stop since it's her own belief.

Aurora. I'm sure that this sounds familiar to us. It's a name of one of the disney princesses that is famous to kids. It's the name of a Disney princess who is well-known among children. But I am not referring to that Aurora. I'm not sure what they name it in Filipino or English, but it's a kind of pabasa, or reading and singing prayers repeatedly. Grandma would usually hire 'professional readers' to read the prayers and sing them. When she receives good news or when anything nice occurs, she does this. It's her way of expressing gratitude for the blessing she's been given. This is rather costly since, in addition to the money she pays for the readers, she also has to feed the visitors.

Aside from these, she has other beliefs that can already be considered rituals. But I forgot some of them. I will ask my cousin who's more familiar with it since he lived longer with grandma and I will probably write about it in the next article. Thank you for reading!